Children in Hospital.

bylromarha

i don't know if there's a book you can get to read before you go in?

DD had a heart op at 18 months old in Birmingham childrens hospital and there were a variety of excellent childrens books in their playroom with titles like "I'm going to have an operationon my heart" and things like that - real specifics that were factual and clear and honest about what would happen and feelings too.

My worse bit was leaving after the anesthetic - be prepared for that bit OP. It's not the nicest thing in the world watching a child go from awake and alert to fast asleep in 10 seconds, then having to leave ASAP for the Drs to do their thing. You know it's absolutely fine, but emotionally I found it hard to watch happen.

All the best.

sleepystar1975

bylromarha wrote: »

My worse bit was leaving after the anesthetic - be prepared for that bit OP. It's not the nicest thing in the world watching a child go from awake and alert to fast asleep in 10 seconds, then having to leave ASAP for the Drs to do their thing. You know it's absolutely fine, but emotionally I found it hard to watch happen

Heartily agree here, I have seen hundreds of children be anaesthetised, but it was so hard leaving my daughter on Tuesday, I obviously left quickly, as I appreciated the speed they need at the next step of the anaesthesia.

OP, once you get back to the ward, take a little walk round the hospital (30 mins or so), as sitting on the ward clock watching will make every minute seem like an hour.

babybug

One thing, if you do get to go and have a look around before he goes in is to find out how far it is from the ward to the operating theatre.

My cousin had to go for an op and was getting more and more upset on the way from the ward to the theatre. It turns out that it was quite a way along a few corridors, and she was panicking. If she'd known that it would take (say) 10 mins to get to theatre, she'd have been fine, but not knowing made her quite nervous.

Just a thought